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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

It’d been a month since our last session, and this one was shorter than usual since I've felt a bit run down lately... The party followed up on a hunch that they’d find employment in Domme and trekked there from the opposite end of the valley. It can be convenient having a setting loosely based on a real location - I was able to share a picture of Domme and its entrance which was helpful in describing its size and the height of its walls. Since it might be a base of operations, I provided an un-keyed map to make in-town directions and relative locations easier to handle. I also gave a much fuller description of the valley, including its dialects, appearance of the people, their gods, and a brief history of the wars between the groups that live on either side of the river. I hand waved all this as having been gleaned through small talk with locals at the tavern during their overnight stay in Beynac.

Entering Domme, they wandered along the interior walls to the north until they came upon a cemetery. They saw a priest consoling a man, both of whom appeared very ill once they'd come closer. They asked these two for directions to any kind of public announcements board and then if everything was alright. The priest gave them directions and told them that there was an illness that seemed to stubbornly return (despite their prayers); it afflicted the northeastern part of town (mostly slums) and if they could, they should stop off at the church of Frayse to thank him for their own health. At this the priest's companion began coughing heavily and the party quickly took their leave.

After successfully bribing a clerk at the mayor’s office and discovering that one of the jobs listed on the announcements board was really for a position as poison checker, Wagstaff offered him more money for information about more lucrative employment prospects. The clerk told them that they could head to the Turnapeak tavern near Castelnaud and ask for a man named Stebbins who could put them in touch with someone else who knew Claude de Sarlat - a wealthy man who hires monster hunters. They also learned that there was another group of adventurers in town that was looking for porters. They headed to a nearby inn hoping to find them and discover their plans.

At the Inn of the Pouting Popkin, they met Tim the legless halfling who did his best to annoy them with limericks and song. Tim dangled hints that he might know where the adventurers they were looking for had departed to, and also about some ruins, but they weren’t tipping him anywhere close to what he seemed to think appropriate. He was disappointed that the party didn’t find his music or rhymes amusing, and that they weren’t interested in the fact that he was once an adventurer too...